American businessman David Green was born on November 13, 1941, and he founded the chain of arts and crafts stores known as Hobby Lobby. He provided funding for the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., and is a significant contributor to Evangelical groups in the US.
David Green Hobby Lobby
While working as a store manager for the TG&Y chain of variety stores in 1970, David Green borrowed $600 to launch a side gig in his garage where he and Larry Pico assembled and sold tiny picture frames. Greco Products made money off of a decorating trend that was popular at the time. Green eventually acquired Pico, and the expanding company hired people with cerebral palsy to work in a small factory for ten cents each frame. By August 1972, the emphasis shifted to arts and crafts, and the company had grown so much that Green and his wife were able to launch Hobby Lobby, a 300-square-foot store in northwest Oklahoma City. Green left his 13-year job with TG&Y in 1975 to launch a second, 6,000-square-foot Hobby Lobby outlet.
Giving It All Away…And Getting It All Back Again, written by David Green and co-author Bill High in 2017, explores Green’s prosperity theological view that tithing ensures God’s protection and emphasizes God’s concern for the next generation.
Personal Life
His father was a Christian minister who had a congregation of thirty-five people in Altus, Oklahoma, where Green was raised. His five siblings are all pastors or the wives of pastors. He claims to have based his company on biblical ideas. Green is one of the biggest individual contributors to evangelical causes in the US and is a strong supporter of Christian groups. As of 2012, Green had donated an estimated $500 million to a portfolio of evangelical nonprofits, allocating half of Hobby Lobby’s total pretax earnings to these endeavors. Because the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has a clause requiring companies to cover the “morning-after pill” as part of their health coverage, David Green has publicly opposed the law.
In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., he filed a lawsuit against the federal government, causing the requirement to supply that prescription to be overturned.
David Green and his spouse, Barbara, reside in southwest Oklahoma City. Together with their three kids, they own Hobby Lobby. Mart Green, the oldest son, founded and serves as the CEO of Every Tribe Entertainment and the Mardel Christian & Education bookstore. Steve Green is the founder and principal donor of the Museum of the Bible, the patron of the Green Collection, and the president of Hobby Lobby. Darsee Lett, a daughter, serves as the Hobby Lobby stores’ creative director.
Museum of the Bible funding
David Green provided funding for the $500 million Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declared in 2017 that 3,800 ancient items discovered in the Hobby Lobby warehouse had been restored to the Republic of Iraq. 11,500 more items were given back to Egypt and Iraq in 2020. Numerous papyrus fragments that were thought to be a component of the Dead Sea Scrolls were also found to be fakes.
According to a July 2020 Forbes magazine article, the museum received $2–$5 million from the Paycheck Protection Program to keep 249 employees, with an average pay of $38,000–$97,000. The “Museum of the Bible applied for and received a PPP loan to pay our employees while the museum had to stay closed, taking in no other revenue,” a museum representative told the magazine in a statement.
Hobby Lobby owner net worth
David Green, who founded the massive retail chain of arts and crafts stores Hobby Lobby, is said to have a net worth of over $6 billion. Hobby Lobby, which he founded with a $600 loan and has since expanded into a global business, is the source of his wealth.
